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    Oil Logistics In The Pacific War In And After Pearl Harbor
    Oil Logistics In The Pacific War In And After Pearl Harbor
    Oil Logistics In The Pacific War In And After Pearl Harbor
    Ebook83 pages1 hour

    Oil Logistics In The Pacific War In And After Pearl Harbor

    By Major Patrick H. Donovan

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    This research paper focuses on oil and its importance to operations in the Pacific during World War II. It specifically concentrates on the period before Japanese-U.S. hostilities, through the strike on Pearl Harbor, and concludes with operations in the Solomon Islands. A secure and reliable source of oil was one of the primary reasons that Japan chose to go to war with the United States that fateful Sunday in December 1941.

    The Japanese understood their country’s need for oil and other resources, but never conformed their military strategy to achieve their national objective of economic self-sufficiency. The Japanese Navy pedantically espoused a maritime strategy that required the United States Navy to fight a war according to the Japanese playbook. The Japanese Navy never understood the importance that oil, including its storage and transportation, had to all Navies that tried to steam the great expanses of the Pacific. This lack of logistical foresight was to eventually play a major role in Japan’s defeat in the Pacific.

    Commanders and their staffs must never forget the importance operational logistics plays in achieving operational and national objectives. This research provides the reader a valuable example of the importance of logistics in the execution of operational strategy while pursuing national goals. Although it is valuable to learn from one’s own personal mistakes, it is usually less painful to learn from someone else’s error, and thereby ensure that their blunder does not become your own.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVerdun Press
    Release dateNov 6, 2015
    ISBN9781786254061
    Oil Logistics In The Pacific War In And After Pearl Harbor

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      Book preview

      Oil Logistics In The Pacific War In And After Pearl Harbor - Major Patrick H. Donovan

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1963 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      OIL LOGISTICS IN THE PACIFIC WAR: IN AND AFTER PEARL HARBOR

      by

      Patrick H. Donovan, Maj, USAF

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      ILLUSTRATIONS 5

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6

      ABSTRACT 7

      PART 1—OIL’S ROLE IN JAPAN’S DECISION FOR WAR 8

      Oil available in the Netherlands East Indies 8

      Japan needs a secure source of oil 9

      Oil in the NEI cannot be secured without U.S. intervention 10

      Pearl Harbor and the Southern Operation 12

      Origins of the Pearl Harbor attack 13

      Securing the Eastern flank 14

      Time is oil 15

      PART 2—OIL, PEARL HARBOR, AND THE U.S. NAVY 17

      Japanese intelligence on the U.S. Navy and Pearl Harbor 17

      The primary targets of the Pearl Harbor attack are ships 18

      Drydocks, repair shops, and oil storage areas spared 20

      Pearl Harbor’s the only filling station in town 23

      A lack of U.S. oil tankers 25

      PART 3—OIL LOGISTICS AFTER PEARL HARBOR 29

      War comes to the U.S. west coast 29

      Roll of the drums 31

      Unswerving Devotion to the Decisive Battle Strategy 32

      Oil and South Pacific Ops 33

      PART 4—CONCLUSIONS 37

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 38

      BIBLIOGRAPHY 39

      ILLUSTRATIONS

      Pearl Harbor drydock area, 10 December 1941

      View of the upper oil tank farm at the Pearl Harbor naval battle

      U.S.S. Neosho refueling U.S.S. Yorktown before Coral Sea battle

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      I would like to thank the staff of the Air University Library at Maxwell AFB AL. Their help in finding and securing articles for my paper was invaluable and saved me immeasurable time and frustration during the course of my research. I would also like to thank my instructor, Dr. Rich Muller, for allowing me into his elective as well as the liberty to pick a topic that piqued my curiosity. I also want to thank Dr. Muller and my fellow students for their innate ability to make a 3-hour class on the operational art of World War II seem much too short and leave me wishing for more. Finally, I want to thank my wife, Teresa, and my two sons, Andrew and William, for all those lost evenings and weekends while I was awash in books and articles researching this fascinating subject.

      ABSTRACT

      This research paper focuses on oil and its importance to operations in the Pacific during World War II. It specifically concentrates on the period before Japanese-U.S. hostilities, through the strike on Pearl Harbor, and concludes with operations in the Solomon Islands. A secure and reliable source of oil was one of the primary reasons that Japan chose to go to war with the United States that fateful Sunday in December 1941.

      The Japanese understood their country’s need for oil and other resources, but never conformed their military strategy to achieve their national objective of economic self-sufficiency. The Japanese Navy pedantically espoused a maritime strategy that required the United States Navy to fight a war according to the Japanese playbook. The Japanese Navy never understood the importance that oil, including its storage and transportation, had to all Navies that tried to steam the great expanses of the Pacific. This lack of logistical foresight was to eventually play a major role in Japan’s defeat in the Pacific.

      Commanders and their staffs must never forget the importance operational logistics plays in achieving operational and national objectives. This research provides the reader a valuable example of the importance of logistics in the execution of operational strategy while pursuing national goals. Although it is valuable to learn from one’s own personal mistakes, it is usually less painful to learn from someone else’s error, and thereby ensure that their blunder does not become your own.

      PART 1—OIL’S ROLE IN JAPAN’S DECISION FOR WAR

      The shortage of oil was the key to Japan’s military situation. It was the main problem for those preparing for war, at the same time, the reason why the nation was moving toward war…Without oil, Japan’s pretensions to empire were empty shadows.—Louis Morton, Command Decisions{1}

      Oil played a crucial, if not the key, role in the Japanese decision to go to war with the U.S. in 1941. Due to the deteriorating political situation with the U.S., U.K., and the Netherlands East Indies, the future of Japan’s oil reserve and supply was

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